Freddie and Carly sat side by side at a small table in the middle of the breakfast buffet of their hotel, waiting for Harper. They had carefully staggered their entrances into the restaurant so as not to raise any suspicion but their plan had been for nothing as their friend had yet to make her appearance.

Carly caught sight of the woman entering and jumped up from her seat, waving her over to join them.

"Carly," Freddie hissed as he joined her in waving their friend over, "your ring."

She quickly pulled her hand back down to inspect the ring that she had completely forgotten about but Freddie acted faster and swiftly reached out, removing the ring from her finger and pocketing it. She gave him a short nod in thanks before turning her attention back towards their friend who was now only feet away from their table.

Harper showed no sign of having noticed the short interaction between the two and dropped into one of the two empty chairs at their table with a smirk on her face as her eyes trailed Carly from head to toe.

"Why are you still dressed in last night's outfit? Walk of shame?" Harper asked as she rose an eyebrow at her roommate.

"Was just too tired to find any other clothes," Carly shrugged, "so I grabbed what I could find on the floor."

"Mhmm" Harper agreed half-heartedly, bringing a glass of water to her mouth and taking a sip. "Come on, I wanna hear a good Vegas story."

Carly's eyes quickly darted towards Freddie, making contact for just a moment before both of them glanced away sheepishly. They sure had a stereotypical Vegas story, but there was no way she was going to share it.

"I know this trip was my idea," Harper said after draining the contents of her water glass. "But please never let me talk you into Vegas again, I feel like death."

Carly nodded in agreement, trying desperately to remember how she would normally act if she wasn't preoccupied with the reality of an accidental husband and concealing her shame from Harper.

"Same," she agreed. "I'm getting too old to drink until I black out."

The three friends kept conversation to a minimum as they went about piling their plates high with fatty, greasy food in an attempt to soak up the remaining alcohol in their systems. After they had all returned for seconds and their plates were once again empty Harper reminded them that they needed to leave soon to catch their flight back home.

Carly didn't get another opportunity to spend time alone with Freddie, she was whisked away by Harper back to their shared hotel room to pack. Harper continued to throw not so subtle glances in Carly's direction, a clear attempt to make her come clean about where she had actually spent her night but Carly ignored her.

The flight home was awkward. Carly was stuck in the seat between Freddie and Harper which forced her to continue her charade that everything was one hundred percent, perfectly normal. Meanwhile her mind was racing, overthinking all the implications of her sudden status as a married woman. She found herself suddenly intensely aware of Freddie in the seat beside her and everytime he would so much as adjust his weight slightly she would turn and stare at him, things were definitely weird.

Harper turned on her the second they walked through their apartment door.

"Spill! Now."

Carly continued to walk towards the couch and casually placed her bags down beside it. She tried to keep her voice as clear as possible, needing to hide the building anxiety from the last hours cramped between Harper and Freddie on their flight home.

"Spill what?" She asked, her back still turned to Harper.

"Where you disappeared last night…"

Carly flopped backwards onto the couch and kicked her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. She relaxed into the cushions of the couch and tilted her head slightly towards Harper.

"I told you, I slept in our room and got up early for a coffee."

"I don't remember a thing about last night, but I am certain you never came back to our room, did you get lost? Did you sleep under a poker table?"

"I don't know what to tell you," Carly gave an exaggerated shrug, glaring at Harper, "You clearly want to believe your own story."

"Girl, you forget I know you. I've lived with you for how long now? You don't get up early on a good day, let alone when you're as hungover as we all were this morning."

Harper crossed the room and took a seat beside Carly, her eyes drilling into her, searching for any small tell. Carly stared right back at Harper, standing her ground and refusing to give in.

"Did you hook up with some stranger and now you're worried Freddie will be upset?" Harper whispered, her eyebrows wiggling for extra effect!

Carly laughed, "why the hell would I be worried about Freddie?"

"You tell me..."

"Harper!" Carly warned, trying to sound shocked.

She was much too used to Harper's insinuations. Ever since her roommate had learnt about their teenage history she had taken great pleasure in teasing the two - strictly platonic - friends.

Strictly platonic friends who now found themselves legally bound to each other as husband and wife. She gulped as the realisation hit her for the hundredth time that day.

"There's nothing going on between me and Freddie and you know it!" Carly insisted. "Besides, who says that this morning couldn't be the first of many days I wake up early, maybe I'm just trying to get my life together!"

"Hungover? In yesterday's clothes?" Harper reminded her. "You keep telling yourself that Carly."

Realising that she wasn't going to get a confession out of Carly any time soon Harper grabbed her bags and headed towards her room. "I'll be here to listen when you're ready" She called over her shoulder before closing the door.

"I don't need to chat," Carly called back as she headed towards her own room. She closed the door behind her and turned to lean against it, sliding to the floor and slumping. How was she going to fix this mess?

It was the first chance she had to be alone all day and now that she could finally stop and catch up with her thoughts she felt a crushing feeling pressing down against her. Her mind was frenzied and zipping from one thought to another, never allowing her to catch her breath and focus.

She stood and walked towards her wardrobe, opening the door to reveal the mirror behind it. She watched herself breathe, counting with each exhale. Her eyes were wide and flicking from one thing to another and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

She pulled her phone from her pocket. When she started to panic there were two people who she knew could talk her through her thoughts and assess things rationally. One was currently the source of her panic, but the other…

She found the number and dialled. As she waited for an answer she continued to watch herself in the mirror.

"Hey Carls!" Sam answered on the third ring. "How's it going?"

"You'll never believe my news," Carly said, trying to make light of the situation. "I got married."

Carly listened as Sam made a disgusted noise of disbelief. "Thanks for the invite..."

"It wasn't exactly planned!"

"Right, the Vegas trip" Sam said, remembering their last conversation together. "Congrats I guess?"

"No, no congratulations, I really messed up!" Carly's voice was starting to sound like a whine.

Sam held back a laugh, imagining the panic cycle she knew her friend was most definitely enduring in the moment and preparing to talk her friend down.

"Right, well Mrs…?" Sam paused, letting the question hang in the air.

"Benson" Carly whispered, the name barely audible through the phone line.

"Huh?" Sam asked, unable to make out her words.

"Benson" Carly repeated, this time louder but with a clear sound of mortification.

Sam was unable to control herself and a smug roar of laughter sounded through the phone.

"You married Freddie?" Sam said around continued giggles. "Shit, the boy finally got his wish."

"It's not funny!" Carly reprimanded, "What the hell am I meant to do?"

"I don't know! Live happily ever after in boring, domestic bliss?"

"SAM!"

"Alright, alright" Sam said, finally getting her shock and laughter under control. "I've had my fun! I'll be serious now, I promise."

Carly turned and collapsed on her bed with a thud, causing her phone to fall out of her grasp. She picked it up again and settled it down by her other ear, turning on her side to get comfortable on the bed.

"Freddie probably hates me."

"What, why would the nub hate you?"

"He already has two ex wives, he doesn't need a third."

"Alright, have you spoken to him yet? Properly?"

"No," Carly said, "we've been with Harper all day."

"Right, so you don't even have a plan yet. Calm down, there's no way that boy hates you."

Carly knew Sam was speaking the truth and was already starting to feel at ease, but there was still a much larger point picking at her nerves.

"But we're married," Carly groaned.

"Eh, the two of you have been in weirder situations before this, it'll be a stupid story in no time" Sam said. "First you need to go talk to that geeky friend of ours, make a plan. Then you two need to laugh about it together. Don't let this turn into something bigger than it needs to be."

Carly nodded to herself, Sam was right.

The next day, instead of working on iCarly business in the studio she planted herself firmly at Spencer's dining room table in an attempt to avoid the continuing questions she was sure she would face if Harper was able to catch her alone.

Spencer shot her a handful of questioning glances throughout the day, confused by the change to his sister's schedule, but by mid afternoon the two siblings had wrapped up their work for the day and were entangled in a lengthy battle of Mario Kart. Spencer continuously insisted that he was the better racer of the two while Carly regularly managed to overtake him in the last moments of the final lap.

"You have to be cheating!" Spencer cried as he threw his controller down beside him in annoyance. "How do you keep doing that?"

"Pure skill," Carly said while blowing at the top of her controller like it was the barrel of a recently fired gun. "Face it, I'm the champion!"

Harper looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading and raised an eyebrow at the two of them.

"You get competitive over the stupidest things," she said, speaking to Spencer.

"You're one to talk," he bit back.

As the two fell into an all too familiar routine of light bickering the apartment door flung open and Millicent strolled in comfortably, followed shortly by her father. Millicent inserted herself between Spencer and Carly and claimed the controller Carly had left sitting on the couch but Freddie hung back by the his hesitance Carly glanced up at him and was ready to invite him over when he caught her eye and tilted his head subtly out to the hallway.

Carly nodded and stood up, noticing just how much effort she was putting into trying to appear at ease. She followed him out the door and closed it behind them. It was the first time she had been alone with him since waking up beside him the morning before and she was struck by just how uncertain he looked, clearly he was as embarrassed by their situation as she was.

He swayed lightly on his feet, his hands resting in his pockets and his eyes downcast, looking at the floor, her shoes, anything but her. Her posture mirrored his and she rubbed at her ankle lightly with her other foot, she couldn't remember the last time she had felt less than completely comfortable in front of him.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," she repeated.

Silence fell between the two of them.

"So, ugh," Freddie started as he slowly looked up at her, an uncertain grimace etched across his face. "I didn't know if you wanted this or what?"

He pulled a hand from his pocket and held it out to her, palm up. Her ring was sitting in the middle of his hand.

"I took it from you in a hurry yesterday and… yeah," he finished, uncertain.

"Right," Carly nodded, finally looking up at him. "Yeah, right, of course."

She reached out, closing the distance between them and wrapped her fingers around the small band, she hesitated for just a moment, not pulling back from his touch just yet. The warmth of his hand radiated onto hers and for just a moment Carly caught herself imagining she was accepting a ring from him in a very different circumstance.

She gulped, shame washing over her about the thought which had attacked her out of the blue and pulled her hand back quickly, hiding the ring in her own pocket.

Freddie smiled at her, a slight look of relief evident now that they were talking.

"Better keep that safe," Carly chuckled lightly. "It is a symbol of our never ending friendship after all."

The smile on Freddie's face grew.

"Until death do we part," he teased.

Carly felt the tension in her shoulders release as she finally stood up straight again.

"We need to talk about this, are you free tonight?"

Freddie nodded, "You can come over, Mom's on night shift all this week, we can chat once Millicent goes to bed."

She nodded, agreeing to the plan.

"We should head in before we raise any suspicions," Freddie suggested, turning towards Spencer's apartment and placing his hand on the door.

He paused and looked back at her. "We good?"

His face was so earnest as he asked the question, worry evident underneath his calm persona. Their friendship was important to both of them, they didn't want to ruin it.

"Yeah," Carly nodded, plastering what she hoped was a reassuring smile to her face. "We're good."

Carly watched as he headed into the apartment first, her hand buried inside her pocket turning the ring between her fingers.

After finishing dinner - old Chinese leftovers from the night before they had flown to Vegas - Carly sent a quick text, asking Freddie if it was still fine for her to come over. Not even a moment later he responded with a single thumbs up emoji.

She was overthinking things, she had never felt the need to text Freddie before dropping by, she usually just rocked up, letting herself into his mother's apartment. They all did, they may have lived in separate apartments but between her brother, Freddie & Millicent and herself & Harper, they all operated like a large family.

She decided to wait a moment before leaving, not wanting to look too keen, and headed towards her bathroom to give her reflection the once over.

She looked… worried.

All day her mind had continued to spiral and she had needed to continuously remind herself that everything was under control. This was Freddie, One of her best friends, the boy she had grown up across the hall from. If there was any relationship that could handle an accidental marriage it was theirs.

So why did she have an urge to crawl back to her bedroom, hide under the covers and avoid him?

"It's just Freddie," she told herself.

In an effort to stop the nervous fidgeting of her hands she moved them to the safety of her pockets. Her left hand made contact with something small and cool and she lifted it out to inspect it.

Her ring.

She slipped it onto her finger, moving her hand from side to side to take in the bizarre sight. She ran a finger over the ring, inspecting its smooth surface.

What should she do with it?

Leaving it behind didn't seem right, but wearing it would surely be weird, and what would Freddie think if he noticed?

She flipped her hand and held it up in front of her chest, glancing at herself through the mirror and taking in the picture of the wedding band dominating her slight fingers.

It was just a ring.

She placed it down beside the basin but her hand remained hovering over it.

She shook her head.

Their marriage wasn't real, not really. They may have legally been tied together but there was no existing relationship, no romantic feeling between the two of them.

This would all be over in time, erased.

But in the meantime…

Surely it wouldn't hurt if she kept the ring on her, Freddie was her best friend and it was a nice reminder of just how much he meant to her.

Carly ducked down to the lowest bathroom drawer, where she stored some of her older, cheaper jewellery in a container. She grabbed a necklace she never wore, because it had a longer chain and which wasn't really her style anymore. She slipped the pendant off the chain and placed it down before sliding the ring onto the chain. She secured the chain around her neck and tucked it under the neckline of her cropped sweater. The ring was hidden from view perfectly. No one would be any wiser that she was wearing it.

She smiled, placing her hand over where the ring now sat against her chest. This way she could keep it close without raising any suspicions. She glanced up at herself and nodded. It was time to head to Freddie's

When she reached his place she let herself in, calling out a general greeting to announce her arrival.

"Aren't you two sick of each other yet?" Millicent asked, barely looking up from her laptop where she sat over at the dining table.

"Not yet!" Carly said and moved to sit beside Freddie on the couch as ads played out on the television.

"Whatcha watching?"

"Celebrities underwater," he answered, grinning at her. "It's the 20th season anniversary special. The cast is full of fan favourites!"

"I'm still surprised that show didn't get cancelled after the whole David Schwimmer incident."

He hummed in agreement.

Carly settled in beside him, as she had done so many times over the years. They watched the reality show play out before them and chatted casually until, half an hour later, Freddie looked at his watch and reminded Millicent that it was her bed time.

"So," Carly said as she reached for the remote and hit the mute button.

Freddie sighed, falling backwards so that he could slump against the couch.

Carly turned to face him, pulling her feet up underneath herself so that she could sit cross legged. Freddie shook his head at her lightly, knowing she knew just how upset his mother would be if she caught her with her feet on the couch.

"I did a bit of research earlier," Freddie told her, suddenly sounding very serious. "We should be able to get the marriage annulled, we just have to prove we were intoxicated and wouldn't have gotten married otherwise."

Carly nodded, biting her lip nervously. "That should be easy right?"

"Looks like it," he grimaced. "Definitely easier than divorce, which by the way, I would like to avoid if possible."

"Scared I'll take all your good shirts?"

Freddie gave an unenthusiastic laugh.

"I just don't want to have another divorce under my belt. I promised myself that the next time I got married it would be the real deal but…" he left his sentence unfinished.

Carly felt guilt creep up on her. She knew that Freddie's divorces had affected his self esteem, that he had felt ashamed of his perceived failures and was determined to start chasing success in his life.

"Well, annulment is like it never happened, right?" She asked even though she already knew the answer. "So don't give up on that dream just yet!"

Freddie chuckled bitterly, his eyes darting down to his lap. "If only 13 year old Freddie could see me now!"

"Hey! You managed to claim the spot as my first husband, he'd be pretty excited."

Freddie groaned, the memory of his childhood crush a point of embarrassment.

"Let's keep this quiet," Freddie said, sitting up straighter and composing himself again.

"Absolutely," Carly nodded. "But just so you know, I already told Sam."

"That explains this then," Freddie said.

With an exasperated sigh he reached for his phone and held it out to Carly, displaying a series of texts from their friend which consisted only of laughing emoji's and name calling.

"Aww, she only used two curse words, she must have been feeling particularly sorry for you."

Freddie rolled his eyes as he reached for his phone again, pulling it from Carly's grasp.

Silence fell between the two of them and Carly turned slightly to watch the colours dance across the muted television screen. She felt the couch move as Freddie stood and she watched him out of the corner of her eye as he crossed the room, retrieving his laptop. He opened it and his fingers flew across the keyboard, entering his well rehearsed password.

After another moment of clicking and typing at the computer he shuffled back towards the couch and sat with it balanced on his lap so that they could both see the screen.

"Alright, so these guys specialise in Nevada annulments. We don't even have to live there." He said, pointing at the laptop where he had pulled up a website with floating proudly across the top of the page. "We can give them a call in the morning or there's an online form we can fill in now if you want?"

"Let's get started now." Carly suggested, looking up at him for confirmation that they were on the same page.

Freddie gave a short nod and clicked on the link which took them to the form. After indicating that they would be submitting as joint petitioners he selected 'husband' and typed his contact details into the form, before selecting 'wife' and typing her details with ease.

Carly's eyes lingered on the word 'wife' appearing above her name. It was weird to see the word associated with her, even weirder to see it sitting under Freddie's name and the word 'husband.'

She gulped involuntarily, and attempted to swallow the noise back down into her throat, instead she choked on her own breath.

"You alright?" Freddie asked, turning to look at her with concern.

"Fine," she said, her eyes flitting from the computer screen up to his face. "This is just really weird."

Freddie gave her a small reassuring smile and turned back to the computer, reading out the notes on the screen.

"Your documents will be emailed to you within 24 hours of submitting this form. Only enter your spouses email if you wish for us to email the documents to them. Address for the second joint petitioner must be different to that of first… That all sounds fine."

He kept talking, reading out questions.

"Are you now pregnant? No. Are there any children from this marriage? No. Do we own property together? No. Alright, here! They want us to write out a valid reason for annulment, including as much information as possible."

They both turned to stare at each other, waiting for the other to provide a suggestion.

"And if we can't remember any of the information?" Carly asked.

"We write that?' He suggested.

Carly pulled the laptop towards her and started typing out a summary of all of the events they could remember, and an explanation as to why they could not recall their decision to marry.

As she finished she glanced up at him, "something like that?"

"Yeah, I guess"

He pulled the laptop back and read over the paragraph.

"We can always tell them more later if we need to," he said as he fixed a spelling error in her writing.

They completed the rest of the form and provided their payment details before pressing submit.

"And now we wait" Freddie sighed, closing the laptop and placing it on the arm of the couch beside him.

Carly's hand instinctively flew up to where she knew the ring was sitting under her sweater. "Mmm" she agreed. "Now we wait."